Obamacare–Another Car off the Rails

Every day brings new problems for Obamacare–no wonder Obama has fled the country.

In case you are being successfully diverted from the healthcare disaster, here’s today’s new problem:

Remember all those people who lost their health insurance notwithstanding Obama’s promise that they could keep it? Well, here’s what’s happening as people scramble to find new coverage–they are determining that while 25 year old men are now covered for mamograms, they aren’t covered for out of town medical needs that were covered under prior policies that they wanted to keep. Nearly 19% of the Massachusetts economy is compromised of “independent contractors” or “consultants” who travel a minimum of 75,000 miles per year. For these people, one of the main determining criteria of their policies has been “portability,” coverage in the event that someone needs medical care while traveling. If you travel every day, this is huge. What the consultant community is discovering is that none of these policies permits out of network coverage, meaning medical care will be cash only. I have clients who are out of state nearly 2/3 of the year, which means that 2/3 of the time they are paying for coverage they can’t use, and are effectively uninsured for 2/3 of the year, notwithstanding the payment of premiums. I represent one contractor who might be on the verge of being the poster child for this. He is currently working on a construction site in New York City at a hospital. A huge addition next to an existing emergency room. He just found out that if a beam falls on him while he is working, he can’t seek treatment 50 yards from the injury site unless he is willing to hand over a credit card. In fact, as he is finding out now, the nearest hospital which will treat him is in Poughkipsee, if he is willing to plunk down 50% of the anticipated treatment cost up front. He will not qualify for any kind of medical care subsidy on site because he doesn’t qualify for Obamacare-welfare.

We’ve been talking to the uncaring Massachusetts congressman about this, and we’ve gotten the “break some eggs to make some omelets” answer. Yesterday, I asked this question: if a plane takes off from Massachusetts and crashes in a field in Pennsylvania, can the survivors get medical treatment? You are going to love the answer: “I don’t know.”

Remember the quote that we aren’t going to know what’s in the law until its put into effect? Think of that next time you decided not to bring your own doctor along on your business trip.

Rob Meltzer

Every day brings new problems for Obamacare–no wonder Obama has fled the country.

In case you are being successfully diverted from the healthcare disaster, here’s today’s new problem:

Remember all those people who lost their health insurance notwithstanding Obama’s promise that they could keep it? Well, here’s what’s happening as people scramble to find new coverage–they are determining that while 25 year old men are now covered for mamograms, they aren’t covered for out of town medical needs that were covered under prior policies that they wanted to keep. Nearly 19% of the Massachusetts economy is compromised of “independent contractors” or “consultants” who travel a minimum of 75,000 miles per year. For these people, one of the main determining criteria of their policies has been “portability,” coverage in the event that someone needs medical care while traveling. If you travel every day, this is huge. What the consultant community is discovering is that none of these policies permits out of network coverage, meaning medical care will be cash only. I have clients who are out of state nearly 2/3 of the year, which means that 2/3 of the time they are paying for coverage they can’t use, and are effectively uninsured for 2/3 of the year, notwithstanding the payment of premiums. I represent one contractor who might be on the verge of being the poster child for this. He is currently working on a construction site in New York City at a hospital. A huge addition next to an existing emergency room. He just found out that if a beam falls on him while he is working, he can’t seek treatment 50 yards from the injury site unless he is willing to hand over a credit card. In fact, as he is finding out now, the nearest hospital which will treat him is in Poughkipsee, if he is willing to plunk down 50% of the anticipated treatment cost up front. He will not qualify for any kind of medical care subsidy on site because he doesn’t qualify for Obamacare-welfare.

We’ve been talking to the uncaring Massachusetts congressman about this, and we’ve gotten the “break some eggs to make some omelets” answer. Yesterday, I asked this question: if a plane takes off from Massachusetts and crashes in a field in Pennsylvania, can the survivors get medical treatment? You are going to love the answer: “I don’t know.”

Remember the quote that we aren’t going to know what’s in the law until its put into effect? Think of that next time you decided not to bring your own doctor along on your business trip.

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